At Honour Health, we’re keen to support local charitable initiatives whenever we can, which is why we’re really proud to back the volunteers of The Rotary Club of Newcastle upon Tyne with their dental project overseas.
The Newcastle club, founded in 1915, is part of a global organisation of Rotary Clubs, whose members voluntarily dedicate their time to help make the world a better place. The Newcastle club meets every Friday at the New Kent Hotel on Osborne Road in Jesmond at 12.45pm.
Rotary International recently funded a study tour to Sao Paulo state in Brazil, led by Peter Tracey of the Newcastle Club. While he was there, Peter became aware of the real dental health difficulties that those living in poverty face in those rural areas. He found that dental treatment is very, very expensive, difficult to access and virtually out of reach of the vast majority of people living there.
Peter said: “It was most interesting to meet members of Rotary Clubs in a rural district called Franca, some 300 miles west of Sao Paulo city, who are themselves qualified and registered dentists. They would like to set up a completely free community dental service, staffed entirely by volunteer Rotarians. They will each give their time and expertise for free on a rota basis if a surgery can be established with suitable equipment.”
Thanks to the Rotary Foundation (the charitable arm of Rotary International), it would be possible to set up and finance such a project, provided that there were equal inputs of capital from both the Brazil side, and from the Newcastle side. If that capital is raised jointly, then the Rotary Foundation will guarantee to match, i.e. double, that total.
This means that £5000 in donations from Newcastle Rotary and also from Brazil Rotary will trigger matched funding to make a £20000 project. A £100 donation from a local business would therefore leverage a total to the project of £400.
This project would be immensely beneficial to those living in poverty in Sao Paulo, who would otherwise struggle to access dental treatment, and we at Honour Health have gladly donated to this worthwhile cause.
We are delighted to hear from Peter that they expect the application for matched funding to be made this July. For further information about the project, and for details of how to donate, please email Peter Tracey at pm.tracey@btinternet.com or call 07768 923173.
Pictured above: A dental treatment registration campaign for local people, on the street of a small rural town, Franca, in Sao Paulo.